Monday, October 29, 2007

If a Reporter is Present, It Must Be News

I'm not sure which is stranger: the third-person thing or the news judgment. If this had happened anywhere but the newpaper parking lot it wouldn't have made the paper.

"Hey, Charlie! Old Word Wolf just phoned in a hot tip. There's a cat in the engine compartment of her car. Drive out there and get that story! Take your camera! We'll run a picture in the late edition!"

More Evidence Editors Don't Have to Read a Story to Write a Headline:The entire story, such as it is:

How long has it been since you've been to the dentist? The American Dental Association estimates that 30 percent of Americans do not regularly go to the dentist. While many of them cite cost as the reason, one third of Americans who have dental insturance still don't go -- sometimes for years.They just don't want to hear the diagnosis," says Dr. Kimberly Harms, a dentist in Farmington Minn., and an ADA consumer adviser. Two thirds of people who believe they are in bad oral health -- the people who need to go to the dentist the most -- do not go, according to a study cited by the ADA.

The Health and Fitness tab editor's take: Some people go back to the dentist after years

Next headline: Five things you didn't know about hot tubsUhm, as a matter of fact, yes I did. See Fortune Cookie entry, below.

Attention J-school professors: If any of your students fail Headline Writing Week, just send 'em over to the Sun with a letter of recommendation. Climate is nice; salary and sinecure do not depend on reading ability.